I’ll be blogging about the event in 3 parts as it’ll just be too wordy and picture heavy if I did it all in one go.

So for me, like a lot of other beauty bloggers, it all began on Friday 🙂 I made me way to the Benefit Brow Bar in Paddington to get a complimentary brow wax and tint. Whilst I was there, I bumped into Tara and we had a mini catch up. The brow tint got me all nervous as it was my first time getting a tint. The Benefit lady didn’t make the tint too dark or too light so as not to make me go into shock when I see my brows lol! She then filled in my brows – another first. I wasn’t used to having such dark and prominent brows but later that night, the girls said my brows looked good. I hope they’re not just saying that 😛

Benefit goodie bag

I left with a gorgeous Benefit goodie bag which included a cute hand held mirror and the brand new Watt’s Up, due to be released on October 8th. It’s a brand new highlighting product from Benefit and we all know I love my highlighters 🙂

Benefit goodie bag

After Benefit, I visited mum at work to show off my new brows lol and then headed to Alexandria for the Rae Morris event.

We sat down for about an hour of learning about Rae’s new brush set and she also shared some great tips for make up application.

Rae demonstrating how soft her brushes are

What I learnt from Rae:

– Few select make up artists purchase their brushes from a man in Japan.

– These brushes cost a minimum of $400USD each. They’re all handmade.

– Rae used to purchase hers from this man but found herself still making adjustments to the brushes to suit her needs. When she was approached by Crown Brushes to make a brush set, she set out to make the best brushes in the world. Rae aimed to have her brushes to be as good and even better. As for the price tag, well, they can’t be more than $400USD! The brushes in the Rae Morris collection average around $35USD each.

– All her brushes have the PETA tick of approval.

– The brushes are made from blue squirrel – most expensive animal hair besides mink. The handles are made from recycled bamboo and for every brush set sold, a new tree is planted!

– THEY’RE MAGNETIC. This amazed me. Rae’s reasoning for this is when you’re a make up artists working shows, photoshoots etc, brushes just seem to go walkabouts. Having them magnetic means you can find them easily in a short period of time. She’s coming out soon with a magnetic tray which you can use to place the brushes.

– For every brush in the collection, there is a corresponding handmade (hand drawn?) face chart showing you what each brush does.

Rae’s brush launch includes a set of 26 brushes for $899.00 which may be out of reach for many of us. I reckon they’re an investment though and if I had the moolah, I’d so purchase it. If you break it down, it works out to be about $35 for a brush which really – is about the same or even cheaper than MAC brushes here in Australia for much better quality! Unfortunately, the brushes are only available as a set so for the mean time, I shall just dream about the brushes.

I was blown away. I left the event feeling very pleased 🙂 Rae was generous enough to gift each of us with either a radiance brush or a deluxe precision shader brush.

Generous gift from Rae

After all that excitement, I still had to get myself to Darling Harbour to register for the ABBW!

I was about 10 minutes late for registration but luckily Jacie and Kimmi stayed open for registration for a bit longer!

I was so glad to finally meet Jacie, who is so witty and has perfect nails and Kimmi, who is a professional at what she does.

Passes!

At registration, we were given our passes (this was what I was looking forward to) but what I didn’t count on were the goodie bags from LeTan, Australis, Dove and Garnier. These sponsors were so generous!

The generous goodie bags from Garnier, Le Tan, Australis and Dove

After registration, some of the Sydney bloggers grabbed dinber at Hurricanes. I love Hurricanes – it never disappoints which is why there is always such a long freaking line.

My dinner at Hurricanes

Dinner was lovely. It was good to grab a bite, have a drink (well some did) and share a few laughs (sweet and salty, anyone?)

After all that fun, it was time to head home and get ready for the first official day of the ABBW.

(Sorry for the various lightings throughout the pictures. The sun was playing hide and seek.)

I attended IMATS this year as part of the Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend. It was my first time attending IMATS and despite the amazingness of the show, I am undecided as to whether I will attend next year. I am not a big fan of crowds and IMATS was just PACKED with people. Hands were flying, trying to grab onto anything and everything.

Inglot

My first purchase was at the Inglot stand which was INSANE.

Inglot madness

Inglot haul

It was so overcrowded and Inglot didn’t have a very organised system. I was lucky I had my wonderful friends (Michelle, Anita, Tara, Angela and Angie) to help me decide on which shadows to get.

Swatching at Inglot

Seeing as I have never tried Inglot before, I thought it be best I stick with the 4 pan palette and just get 4 shadows to try. I made it my mission not to get any neutrals as I’ve got a truckload of neutrals to play with at home. It didn’t help with Anita grabbing some of the most gorgeous neutrals I’ve ever laid eyes on! After 15 minutes or so of swatching, I decided on: DS 504, AMC Shine 15, Pearl 452 and Pearl 446. I paid $28 for the 4 shadows (works out to be $7 each) and then $6 for the 4 pan.

This was handy. A pull-back sticker type for the shadows. Easy to remove the shadow from the packaging.

After I had made my first purchase from Inglot, I went to the neighbouring stall and got two pairs of false lashes whilst waiting for the other ladies to finish their palettes 🙂

Girlee Cosmetics stand

I got these from Girlee Cosmetics – 2 for $10.

Girlee Cosmetics haul

Whilst we were waiting for some of the girls to get served, which felt like FOREVER, some other ABBW attendees came past and informed us of the bargains at Illamasqua so that was our next stop.

Chaos at the Illamasqua stand

There was a very limited range available and a lot of the good stuff were already sold out. However, me being me, did not want to walk away empty handed from Illamasqua because the prices were amazing.

Illamasqua haul

I got Libido cream blush for $15!! and Petulant intense lipgloss for $10. Bargain or what? I’ve got 2 other Illamasqua cream blushes so I know I won’t be disappointed. They’re amazing – blendable, pigmented without being overbearing and long lasting staying power.

Libido cream blush and Petulant intense lipgloss

I also got my hands on a Make Up For Ever aqua cream ($25).

Make Up For Ever stand

Make Up For Ever HD foundations

We were at PM Studio and found that the prices were a bit more wallet friendly than the actual Make Up For Ever stand and there wasn’t such a huge crowd 🙂

Make Up For Ever haul

After some ooh-ing and aah-ing, I settled on #18, a lilac mauve shade. I’ve never tried them before so I’m looking forward to having a play.

Make Up For Ever aqua cream #18

Whilst we were walking around IMATS, I made sure to keep an eye out for traincases. I’ve been looking at train cases for a while now but the freight costs made me avoid purchasing them online. I found a lovely one at The Make-up Foundation. It was selling for a ‘special show price’ of $75 so I grabbed one. It was so heavy lugging it from the convention centre to my car which was like a 5 minute walk LOL Big thanks to Angie for helping me lug it 🙂

The Make-up Foundation train case 02

It comes with six trays in total, three on each side. It’s also got a deep bottom section. Comes with 2 keys and a strap in case you (or .. I) want to carry it around 🙂

The Make-up Foundation train case 02

My two last stops were for BRUSHES! That’s what I really came to IMATS for 😛 Made my first stop at Royal and Lagnickel.